As New. The year is +1108 Atomic Era and Hanville Svetz(acquirer of extinct animals) has just returned from a time travel mission to the year +390, bringing with him a snake for his employer"s private zoo collection. On returning home he soon learns that his employer(the Secretary-General) has died and that the new regime has a change of career planned for him. A time travel mission to investigate the distant past of the planet Mars. Svetz learns that ancient Mars was rich in life and complex politics but faces a bizarre threat to its systems of canals that could end life on mars. 322pp